Category: Random

So the Oscar nominations have been announced. I’ve been holding back from commenting on them until I’ve had a chance to let my impressions settle a little. And it has to be said that it’s a pretty motley selection of movies and performances on offer.

Films like A Beautiful Mind are always good Oscar fodder – nice worthy biopics which stretch an actor to perform the full range of emotions from serious-and-confused to serious-and-angry. But let’s be honest – this is not a life-changing film by any stretch of the imagination. Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge are both strong on spectacle, and as such they’re very unusual “Best Picture” candidates. Of the two, Lord of the Rings is the infinitely superior film – I think for most critics Moulin Rouge was essentially a tremendous Victorian folly – glorious in its ambition, and a bit lacking in artfulness and point. I’ve yet to see Gosford Park or In the Bedroom.

There’s an alternative approach to the coverage of the awards over at the IMDB which might prove interesting to people. And if you get bored of that, perhaps a glance at last year’s nominations or the nominations for the year before that will convince you that 2001 will not be considered a vintage movie year…

One of my flatmates has asked whether Riaz, a friend of hers from America, can stay in our flat for a few days at the end of the month and bring a friend. Unfortunately, the last time Riaz came to stay he was … difficult …. company for me – and someone I found very hard indeed to deal with. But I don’t feel I can protest too heavily after a guest of mine ended up staying in the flat for over two weeks a while back. There’s much more to this story than I can discuss in a public place. Which makes it all the more frustrating.

Dancing iMac. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Dancing iMac. Yeah, yeah, yeah! I was in Central London yesterday and I stumbled upon one of the new iMacs in a shop on Tottenham Court Road. As usual, it was slightly bigger than I expected it to be, but after a few minutes of play it became clear that it was really well put together. The screen is gorgeous, the angling mechanism smooth and beautifully engineered and – of course – the specifications are substantially better than my current computer.

Do you have the energy to talk to Ivan Massow live on guardian.co.uk this afternoon at 2pm? Some of the questions posted so far are gloriously absurd. One of my favourites reads: “Do you hold with these new-fangled modern paraffin light things? Or would you rather use the tried-and-tested candle?” Another absurdist rant ends, “Finally, I’ve not followed your carreer before but you seem a genuine and nice looking lad, and not a ‘hooray’. I wish you all the best in your life. “

Is this why I’m grumpy so often? Excellent. Now all I need to do is figure out why my jaw hurts all the time at the moment.

She’s finally done it. The ginge from the fringe, the neater B3ta feature! The sap from emap is back! And she presents BunnyCorp! Featuring Deep-fried Bunny! The Company History! And you can end it with tiny pixel pictures of me, Cal, Rob, Joel and… a waving crab…

I’ve been invited to come for one of four half-day assessments at the BBC, to be followed by a first interview, to be followed in turn by a second interview, all for a job which would require me to be able to start in (just) less than a month. The job excites me – the recruitment process terrifies me.

Ok, so now five separate people have said that I look like Will from Pop Idol. Most of them have been kind enough to leave out the “older lardier version of…”, although it’s been implied.

One of Barbelith’s best threads for ages is getting more and more involving – How are you gay?

That dark and evil day is approaching when nauseating couples drench the world in golden syrup and sashay around showing off their love for one another as if they had licence not to get punched. Which they don’t. Thankfully, we have beautiful geeks like Robyn and Dr Love to present ethical and tasteful alternatives: geekout e-greetings.